The Third Weekly Newsletter
This is getting tough...Periodical Periodicals?
And we’re back with another update. Unfortunately, this past week has been relatively thin in terms of what I’ve been consuming since most of it has been the same as last week, something I suspected might happen. I read, play games, and watch movies and shows quickly, but not that quickly, so some of the sections will be thinner this week. However, I’ve added a new section—“What I’m Writing”—since there’s something coming up soon I’m excited for you all to see. So without further ado, let’s get into it.
What I’m Writing
If you follow global events and the figures that speak about them—particularly about the world’s totalitarianisms—you might be familiar with the figure known as Yeonmi Park, a dissident and defector from North Korea. Yeonmi’s story and her status granted by it have been known for a while—almost a decade in fact—and it involves many harrowing tales. However, many of these tales have had their veracity called into question. Because of this and the seeming rise of skepticism appearing online once again, I decided to jump into the discourse myself, analyzing both Yeonmi’s claims over the years, and what it might mean for them to be untrue. I was also able to jump back into my college years and revisit the story of Rigoberta Menchu, the indigenous Guatemalan social justice activist from the 1980s and 1990s whose own story was called into question. Both stories resonate with me because their central figures became darlings of both the right and left, respectively, and their defenders have used almost the same defenses of both verbatim. I won’t spoil anything more, but please keep your eyes open on the History Impossible social media presence; it’s likely I’ll be sharing it sooner rather than later.
What I’m Reading
I continue to read the books I mentioned last week—that is, Nazi Propaganda in the Arab World by Jeffrey Herf and The Bosnian Muslims in the Second World War by Marko Atilla Hoare—but I did complete my Star Wars journey I mentioned last week, finishing Dark Tide II: Ruin. And while that was a very satisfying ride, I was really excited to jump into the next part of the New Jedi Order saga, with Agents of Chaos I: Hero’s Trial by James Luceno, which focuses primarily on fan favorite character Han Solo as he deals with some incredible grief that I won’t spoil here. It’s much more “classic” Star Wars in vibe, in that it focuses on the adventures of a small number of characters with the galactic stakes acting more as a background that helps drive the overall story. If memory serves about this series, the entries oscillate between the two vibes quite expertly, so I’m excited to continue this journey and report back to all of you.
What I’m Watching
I saw no new TV series this week, and I didn’t even watch a film on streaming services. However, I did something increasingly rare these days: I saw a film in theaters. And not only that, I saw a film in theaters I knew nothing about ahead of time. Molly and I went to the theater to meet with a friend of ours to see the anime film Suzume, written and directed by a Japanese anime maverick of sorts named Makato Shinkai, a sort of Gen X version of Hayao Miyazaki, both in terms of the magical stories he tells and the animation style with which he displays them. I, like my friend who introduced me to this film, will say nothing apart from the link I provided above because, to put it bluntly, this is the best anime I’ve ever seen. And I’m not really an anime guy; I like Miyazaki’s films and I’ve been known to enjoy Cowboy Bebop on occasion, but this story really made me pay attention to anime again. It was as magical as a film can be; a true cross-country adventure, filled with magic, romance, action, and…a talking stool. No I did not stutter. I plan to check out more of Makato Shinkai’s work after this and, if memory serves, Miyazaki has a film about planes during World War II or something along those lines, which I now plan to check out (and about which, of course, report back to you all here). But if you have the chance, check out Suzume and let me know what you think!
What I’m Playing
Speaking of Star Wars, I finally picked up the recently-released Jedi: Survivor. I really have very little to say about this thing since I haven’t played much of it yet, but it’s more Star Wars and, despite Disney’s best efforts, Star Wars can be good, and this game is a sequel to a very good game from 2019 called Jedi: Fallen Order. Both games take place between the events of Episodes III and IV, and around the same time as the Disney+ shows Obi-Wan Kenobi and Andor, which is shaping up to be the only era of Star Wars worth paying attention to. Hopefully Survivor will add to that formula.
And That’s All She Wrote
Fingers crossed we have more to talk about next week. We’ll see. I’m planning to watch a veeeeeery relevant film tonight—that is, the recent Sisu—so if those plans don’t fall through, I’ll make sure to include that in next week’s dispatch. If possible, I may watch another this coming week, and one that really needs analysis: I plan to finally (seriously, finally) hold my breath and watch the Russian war classic, Come and See. Typically ranked among the most disturbing films ever made, this could be a whole lot of nothing or really hit me hard. I guess we’ll see. I’ll try to get an essay or two into my reading so I have more to talk about next week. But regardless, have a great weekend, comrades and friends!